Good But Not Great... Yet

There's a big dividing line between good and great. 

But there’s also an easy measure of whether you’re able to make the jump.

I was thinking about that last week, as I talked to students at Homerton College, Cambridge about the art of powerful presentations.

It was the launch of the Changemakers programme, which teaches students the skills they need to thrive in the world, alongside their academic education. Hence my presentations session. 

I’ve done the talk a few times, and when you have experience like that it leaves you with a choice.

If it goes well, and seems to do the trick, do you sit back, put your feet up, rest on your laurels, and bring out the presentation again and again, exactly as it was, every time it’s required?

After all, that’s the easy and obvious way, isn’t it? Save time and trouble, and just hit repeat.

Or do you do something else?

Every time you’re giving the talk, do you go back to it? Edit a little detail here and there? 

Try something new, because one of the interactions, or exercises, didn’t work quite as well as you'd hoped?

Keep polishing and perfecting, revisiting, rehearsing and renewing, trying to make the talk a little better every time?

But why would you do that, anyway?

Maybe because it feels like the right thing to do, because it keeps you fresh and energetic when delivering your presentation?

And perhaps because you sense that’s the critical difference between performing at a level which is good, and moving on and up, to make that heady and so very fulfilling jump…

To performing at a level which is great.